A Dublin priest who sexually abused boys was yesterday given a six-year sentence by Judge Cyril Kelly at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Judge Kelly ordered that 54-year-old Ivan Payne serve two years in prison. He suspended the final four years on condition that Payne entered the Granada Institute or some similar centre for treatment. Payne, who entered into a bond to go for treatment after the two years' imprisonment, was given eight terms of six years, two of five years and three of four years on 13 charges of indecent assault on nine boys between 1968 and 1987. All the sentences are to run concurrently.
The Dublin-born cleric, with an address care of the Dublin Archdiocese, pleaded guilty on April 27th to the 13 sample charges. His victims were aged from about 11 to 14. The offences generally involved Payne putting his arm around the victims and moving his hand down under their waistbands or under hospital bedclothes to handle their genitals. There was masturbation in the case of one victim.
Judge Kelly said the maximum sentence the court could impose was 10 years, but sentencing was a complex mosaic and each case depended on its own facts. The superior courts had directed that several factors had to be taken into consideration so that sentences would be balanced.
Some of the cases before the court had been gross, with evidence of buggery and depravity that sometimes defied description. There were no allegations of depravity in this case. Payne had pleaded guilty, and his plea had avoided the distress it would have caused his victims to give evidence at a trial. "He is now disgraced in the full glare of publicity and has already paid a price. He has no previous convictions, and will be for evermore a pariah within the community." Judge Kelly said there was no outstanding feature to define a paedophile, and no easy way to alert society about a paedophile in its midst. Paedophiles didn't come from any particular section of society, could be male or female and didn't belong to any one religious persuasion or another.
He said paedophilia damaged not only the victims and their families but society as a whole. It caused an erosion of trust and, therefore, an erosion of the quality of life in general.
All paedophilic cases showed in common an adroitness by the offender in grooming children for sex abuse and the power to manipulate children. They didn't involve impulsive, once-off offending as a general nature.
There was a pattern of behaviour involving sexual arousal in the company of young children, distorted thinking which made the offending seem normal to the abuser and an ability to resolve his or her own conscience.
Judge Kelly said Payne was described in evidence and in reports as "a dashing charismatic figure" and as "the nicest man in the world". Some of his victims were altar boys whom he described as his "little angels" and who were impressed by him. He was highly thought of by all who knew him. He had helped a lot of people and done a lot of good in his work so that there was "total disbelief" when he was charged with these offences. But he hadn't chosen the priesthood as a means of getting to young children.
Judge Kelly said the victim impact reports revealed the crux and conflict for children who were victims of clerical paedophiles. They didn't think they would be believed because the very idea of accusing a priest of such offending was almost unthinkable.
"This man was a paragon of virtue in society cloaked in the veneer of theological rectitude," he said. The impact had affected the lives of the victims and their families in many ways. They suffered from depression, anger, anxiety and self-blame. "Parents blamed themselves for placing their children in danger, thereby blaming themselves for something they were not responsible for," he said. Society's knowledge of paedophilia was growing, but he regarded statistics which were quoted by psychotherapists and other experts in these cases "with caution for many reasons". Monitoring of paedophiles prevented re-offending, but there was no known cure for the offending.